In an era of increasing dispersion of political will and authority in the international system, the approaches to and methodologies for peacemaking are changing. "Managing Conflict in a World Adrift" provides a sobering panorama of contemporary conflict along with innovative thinking about how to respond now that new forces and dynamics are at play.
"Managing Conflict in a World Adrift", the fourth volume in the landmark series edited by Chester A. Crocker, Fen Osler Hampson, and Pamela Aall, replaces "Leashing the Dogs of War" as the definitive text on the sources of conflict and solutions for preventing and managing conflict. Forty of the most influential analysts of international affairs present varied perspectives and insightful thinking to inform a new framework for understanding current demands of conflict management. This framework is based on three key questions:
- Are we in the midst of a global political shift where power moves from central institutions to smaller, more distributed units?
- What is the nature of the relationship between political, social, or economic change and the outbreak and spread of conflict?
- And what are the consequences of these factors for conflict management?
Emerging systemic and societal transformations call for the fresh thinking and approaches to peacemaking featured in "Managing Conflict in a World Adrift". Crocker, Hampson, and Aall bring together leading authorities in the field to guide students and practitioners of international relations and conflict management in a time of ambiguous and asymmetrical world order. Peacemakers of today and tomorrow will gain from this text a broad and deep understanding of the current situation along with the strategies and skills needed to prevent and resolve conflict.
Chester A. Crocker is the James R. Schlesinger Professor of Strategic Studies at Georgetown University and a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innnovation (CIGI). His teaching and research focus on conflict management and regional security issues. He served as chairman of the board of the United States Institute of Peace (1992-2004) and as a board member for many years thereafter. From 1981-1989, he was U.S. assistant secretary of state for African affairs. As such, he was the principal diplomatic architect and mediator in the prolonged negotiations among Angola, Cuba, and South Africa that led to Namibia’s transition to independence, and to the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola. Dr. Crocker served as a staff officer at the National Security Council (1970-72) where he worked on Middle East, Indian Ocean, and African issues and director of African studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (1976-80). He serves on the boards Universal Corporation, Inc., a leading independent trading company in tobacco and agricultural products; Good Governance Group Ltd, a business intelligence advisory service; and Bell Pottinger USA, a communications and public relations firm. Dr. Crocker is a founding member of the Global Leadership Foundation, the Africa-based Housing for HIV Foundation and member of the Independent Advisory Board of the World Bank. Dr. Crocker is the author of High Noon in Southern Africa: Making Peace in a Rough Neighborhood (1993), co-author (with Fen Osler Hampson and Pamela Aall) of Taming Intractable Conflicts: Mediation in the Hardest Cases (2004), and coeditor of Leashing the Dogs of War: Conflict Management in a Divided World (2007), Grasping the Nettle: Analyzing Cases of Intractable Conflict (2005); Turbulent Peace: The Challenges of Managing International Conflict (2001); and Herding Cats: Multiparty Mediation in a Complex World (1999).
Fen Osler Hampson is a distinguished fellow at the Centre for International Governance and Innovation (CIGI). He is also Chancellor's Professor at Carleton University. Hampson was a Jennings Randolph Fellow at the United States Institute of Peace in 1993-94.
Pamela R. Aall is a senior fellow at Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) and the former vice president for United States Institute of Peace's domestic programs, Education and Training Center . Before joining the Institute in 1993, she was a consultant to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities and to the Institute of International Education. She held a number of positions at the Rockefeller Foundation. She has also worked for the European Cultural Foundation (Amsterdam and Brussels), the International Council for Educational Development (New York), and the New York Botanical Garden. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University and an M.A. from Columbia University and attended the London School of Economics, conducting research on political and economic integration in Scandinavia and Europe.
